getting things done

Chicken coop build, day three – finished!

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I had to make a run into town late this morning, so we didn’t even start on finishing the chicken coop assembly until much later in the afternoon. Which was fine, because it turned out to be an absolutely lovely day today.

The first thing I worked on was reinforcing the interior roost, then securing them in place.

Each corner got one of these flat braces. My original intention had been to have the horizontal roost resting on top of the vertical support, but it was difficult to get proper measurements through the tiny opening I had to work in. The roosts ended up too short by enough that I instead trimmed them about a quarter inch shorter so that they would fit in between the vertical supports, instead of on top. While the corner braces would hold them in place, these were cheap dollar store braces and I was concerned they wouldn’t hold the weight of chickens without bending or breaking. These flat braces are higher quality and will hold. The wood itself will break before those give out.

To secure the roosts, I had to use a little kitchen step ladder to be able to reach from above at the front, to set the roosts in place and line them up, while making sure they were flush against the front and back walls. There is just a bit of a height difference because of the white edging I had to account for. Both roosts had a vertical that sort of bent away from the wall, so I used one of the pieces for later in the build, jammed at an angle to brace the wonky side in place. Once they were solidly flush against the walled, I screwed them in place from the outside. Each end got three screws. Later on, I’ll use some sort of sealant on the screws to protect the wood from moisture.

The coop now has a roost on each side, on the inside.

The next stage of the build was to add the roosts that came with the kit, which were to be mounted underneath, on either side of where the ramp would be. For that, I needed an extra pair of hands and asked my daughter to come help. After I went inside and looking up online, just how they were supposed to be attached. The pictographs were really useless for that and even an image I’d shared with my daughter, showing how high off the ground they were supposed to be secured, looked like there was something else entirely going on.

She ended up basically taking over the build, and I was her assistant. Mostly because she can actually get down on the ground, and I can’t.

This time, though, we set a sheet of plastic on the ground as a drop sheet. Last time, my daughter was crawling around on the ground, she later discovered she managed to get cat poop on her pants. Ick.

Getting the exterior roosts in place was definitely a two person job. Especially for the front. With the area for the door empty, the sides sides were slightly spread out, and I had to push the entire side in and hold it in place while my daughter screwed the roosts in place.

After that, the floor between the two sides had to be installed, then the hinged ramp attached to the floor. That was all my daughter, as there was no room for me to do anything other than hand her screws.

That done, we had to attached the door to the frame by the hinges. There were a couple of plates that I’ve been using as spacers every time we had to attach a hinged door. After the door was hung, those plates were added across the insides of the frame’s corners at the opposite side, to stop the door from going past the frame when closed. Then the latch was added to the top, and the door and frame could be attached to the coop.

With the ramp on hinges, that could be lifted up and out of the way, so my daughter could go inside and screw the door frame to the coop. The ground isn’t level, so my job was to line up edges and corners and hold them in place – which required actually lifting the coop itself slightly, on one side – until my daughter got enough screws in to hold it in place, and she could do the rest without me holding things.

Once the door and frame were in place, there were a pair of cross pieces to attach between the top of the door frame and the back mesh wall of the coop. These were part of the roof supports.

The roof was the next thing to do, and it took a lot of figuring out what the pictographs were showing. We noticed some pre-drilled holes in some pieces and had to look at instructions a couple of pages later to see what they would be used for, and we could tell which direction they were supposed to face.

The roof supports were assembled in two parts before they could be set on top and secured to the coop. Then we could finally put on the plastic roof panels.

Which was more of a pain than it should have been.

First, was figuring out which side was up, as both sides were identical. They had pre-drilled holes in them that needed to line up with the supports they would be screwed into. Then there were the overlaps. After much shifting and flipping and trying again, it was the pre-drilled holes that determined which panel edge went on top of the other. It was not the way I would have expected it to, when it comes to drainage, but it was the only way one screw could secure both edges at the same time.

Once we got that figured out, and the panels were centered and lined up, we could finally start screwing them into place. For this, my daughter was using the little step ladder a lot, and we found a different problem. The ground was too soft and the legs of the ladder started to sink! I had a small piece of plywood nearby that I could put on the ground under one set of legs, which worked out very well. When it was time for my daughter to move the ladder to reach another section, I just kept moving the board.

We found other problems, though.

The screws for this part of the build are quite short. Too short for where the panels overlapped. After some digging around in the garage, I found a few that could replace some of the screws along the seams, but then we had a whole different problem along the front. For all the care we took to line up the pre-drilled holes with the supports below, the entire row of pre-drilled hold along the front were just a touch too far. The boards in that part of the roof were slightly warped. Probably from sitting in the box in the garage for over a month in the winter. There were extra longer screws in the kit and my daughter ended up using those, and not using the pre-drilled holes, to secure the roof panels. Some of the screws went in crooked and the tips got exposed, but not anywhere I chicken could hurt itself, so we weren’t too worried about it. We’ll have to go over the roof with sealant in places, anyhow.

Once the roof panels were on, the only thing left was to attach the hooks and eyes that would be used to hold open the two front doors for air circulation. For that, the hooks were first attached under the roof, and then we could use those to decide where to attach the screw eyes at the height we wanted the doors to be held open at. In spite of using a measuring tape and marking out where to attach them, we ended up doing one door at a different height than the other. The white edging in one of them had marks already on them that I mistook for the marks I’d made below! Which is fine. As long as they can be held open.

That done, the coop was officially assembled. We just had to move it.

Slight problem. The hinged ramp. With the roof in place, it couldn’t be lift up like when my daughter worked under it before. What we ended up doing was lifting is as high as we could through the open door, then quickly shutting the door before it could drop. We still had to push the ramp up through the wire mesh so the door could be closed but, once it was, the door itself held the ramp up and out of the way.

It wasn’t easy to move the hole thing. We were able to get grips on each end, because the wire mesh is on the inside of the coop, so there was enough of a lip on the frames that we could get our fingertips under there. The main problem was me and my janky elbows. I could hold the weight for only short distances before I could feel them giving out.

Still, we managed it, and set it up in front of the retaining wall, where the ground seemed to be the flattest.

It’s still not level, but at least the whole thing isn’t being twisted out of shape by uneven ground.

Where is how the finished coop looks, with all the doors closed, plus the back, which has no doors of any kind.

You can really tell in the side views, how the ground is sloping! In the front and back views, you can see the screws holding the inside roots in place.

Here are the three sides with all the doors open.

The coop was designed with the roosts below as a way of not having to deal with lots of chicken poop inside. With the added roosts sheltered inside, we’ll be adding bedding. The nesting boxes will probably get straw, but I plan to get pine shavings for under the roosts inside.

With the coop right up against the retaining wall, we can potentially secure it to the blocks so it won’t get blown over in high winds.

We will probably not be able to keep it there, though. It is facing west and the sun can shine right through the wire mesh, the sides might create too much shadow for the garden bed behind it.

One of the things I want to do if find a way to add wheels to it, so it will be easier to move around as needed. It might be easier to just make a pair of wheeled platforms that can be tucked under the ends, then removed once the coop has been moved.

This coop will work out fine for when we get our first chickens, and for the summers. It is not the strongest of structures and definitely not suitable for a Canadian winter, but the plan is to build a polytunnel in the garden this year, so that we can move the chicken coop into it for the winter. It will do until we can build a proper, sturdier, chicken coop. We’re just getting a few chickens to start; enough to supply us with eggs. Over time I want to get more, including meat hens, so we will need to expand things quite a bit. It will take time and materials we don’t really have, but at least now we can get started.

Meanwhile, we can get ready for the chicks to arrive at the end of May. We’ll need feeders and waterers (the ones my parents used are still in the old chicken coop, but I don’t know that any of them are useable, after so many decades since my parents had chickens), both for while we have the chicks in a brooding pen indoors, and for when they get moved outside.

Something else that will be coming at the end of May is our order of basket willow. I got an email from the nursery with several shipping dates available, and I requested the latest one. That will give us time to prepare where we will be planting them, beyond the outer yard, and working out how to protect them from the renter’s cows.

On a completely different note…

It is confirmed that Slick lost her litter. While working outside, I heard a commotion and it was Slick. She’s gone into heat again, and had a whole crowd of dudes wanting their turn with her. She was not happy about it, either. I sent a quick message to the rescue and they want me to trap her as soon as possible. I don’t think we’d be able to trap her specifically, though. However, she has been super friendly when we do the morning cat feeding, and we might be able to get her into the big carrier. Tomorrow morning, my daughter is going to come out with me to try and get her. If we can manage it, she’ll go to the rescue for however long it takes for them to get her spayed, then she will come back here.

If we can get her contained!

Here’s hoping!!!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: snow crocus blooming, and spring clean up progress

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Today was a fair bit warmer than yesterday and sunny, making up somewhat for the wind. After losing a day of work in the yard and garden yesterday, it was a perfect day to catch up. I managed to get a lot more done than I expected. The pre-sown and fall transplanted beds are now cleaned up. I even got some direct sowing done!

The warmth and sunshine brought out some lovely colour, too.

The snow crocus buds have been showing for a few days now, and today they finally bloomed.

While working, I took some video and some photos, but forgot to get before and after photos of all the areas I worked on. I might put together a series of short videos on the progress, rather than one long one, later on. For now, I don’t even want to think about it. I’m just too tired.

So, this is what I can show you now.

Whoops! How did that get there? 😂🤣 The cats are really loving that sunny pile of straw I put under the mock orange bush.

The first area I worked on is the trellis bed in progress. (click through to see the “after” photo in the next series of images)

This bed has a row of rainbow carrots down the middle, a variety of pea with a pink blush making a partial row near the trellis posts, and the other side and ends with onions meant for seed and deer deterrent – I hope.

I started with the carrots, since they were the hardest to reach. I think I might have seen a sprout or two, or maybe it was weed seedlings. I’m not sure. Once the mulch was off the row (the straw removed completely, the leave mulch below pushed aside), I covered it with boards to keep it damp. I’ll check it every morning and remove the boards when I see carrot seedlings.

Uncovering the peas was a pleasant surprise. There were quite a lot of seedlings!

I did the onions last and found quite a few, but also quite a few gabs. I might transplant some of my bunching onions that I started indoors to fill those, if nothing shows up.

Next, I uncovered where the flower bed was last year.

This took more than expected. I’d tossed the mulch on top of the Cosmos stems and meant to leave the root balls to compost in the soil. In the end, I had to dig it up a lot more because of a combination of creeping Charlie and elm tree roots.

*sigh*

When I collected seed from the memorial asters planted in the same bed, I did allow some seeds to drop, to see if they would survive and grow this year. I really hope some show up, because I still can’t find the packet I’d put the collected seeds into. Another packet is missing, too, but it’s the memorial asters that I really wanted to keep going. I’m quite unhappy that they’ve gone missing. There is only one area they could be, and there’s just no sign of them.

In the end, I did plant some collected nasturtium seeds at the sunny end, lightly covering that area with straw to hopefully discourage cats.

The next area I worked on was the asparagus and strawberry area.

I wasn’t going to uncover where the asparagus was planted, as they can grow through a mulch like this. There were only a few of the green asparagus (at the far end of the photo) that survived last year, but it’s entirely possible some of the purple asparagus might show up. Maybe. Who knows.

What I focused on was uncovering the Albion Everbearing strawberries I’d found and transplanted last year. As I found and uncovered surviving plants, I made sure to return some straw around them to keep the ground moist and the weeds at bay.

Next was the spot I’d found the surviving strawberry plants. I had done nothing in that bed last year; I just was never able to tend it. This year, I plan to grow the giant pod poppy variety I got seeds for this year.

The first thing I did was move the 4′ x 4′ wood frame out, setting it with the one near the compost pile that’s the same size. I plan to put them together to make that bed a touch deeper.

This bed took a lot more work. Which I did expect. I worked a fair bit outside where the frame had been, because there was so much creeping Charlie trying to work its way into the bed. There were, of course, plenty of crab grass rhizomes to clean up. Unfortunately, there was also quite a lot of tree roots in it, too. I couldn’t do much about them, as they were coming up from deeper than I was able to dig down to.

After this bed was done, I took a sustenance break, then came back with the poppy seeds, as well as the nasturtium seeds I planted in the other bed.

This bed had already started to dry out, and poppy seeds need to stay pretty much on the surface, so I filled a watering can and watered it first.

I look forward to when we can hook the hoses up again! It still gets too cold overnight right now.

There were fewer seeds in the packet than I expected, so they weren’t scattered as evenly as I would have liked. Then I used a rake to spread things evenly and just barely cover the seeds. This bed now needs to have some cold nights, including nights below freezing, for the seeds to germinate. The daytime highs for the next while are supposed to be similar today, or cooler, with a mix of sun and clouds. I’ll have to make sure to keep watering this bed, so the seeds don’t dry out and get baked.

The main garden area was now done. I just had a few more mulches to move, but I neglected to take still shots. I really should have for one of them!

The fenced off area with the tulips, apple tree and saffron crocuses were next, as well as the retaining wall blocks. Around the apple tree, I just moved the straw a bit further from the stem, where the weight of snow had pushed it closer to.

Then I uncovered the saffron crocuses and was wildly surprised. There were so many crocus leaves! They were surprisingly long and mostly blanched yellow from trying to grow through the mulch, with some of them having actual green in their leaves. I was very impressed by how many I saw. Last spring, I uncovered them and found a few, but they sort of disappeared among the weeds as the season progressed, and I thought they’d died off – until I found some spent and frost damaged blooms, way later than was expected!

Next, I took the straw off the retaining wall, taking it over to the tulip patch. I lightly scattered the straw over the tulips, though the wind made that a challenge. Later on, I took extra straw from over the septic tank and made an extra thick later in placed I was 100% sure had no tulips planted.

The retaining wall blocks have mint, chives, and tiny strawberry plants I’d transplanted from the wattle weave bed. Under the straw mulch was a leaf mulch that I removed carefully. There were a few green strawberry leaves, but it may be that most of them didn’t survive the winter. I also didn’t see any green in the mint, but that might show up later. The chives, of course, were coming up just fine as I cleared away the dead matter from last year. Chives survive anything! 😄

Last of all, I went to the chimney blocks along the chain link fence. Those got the last of the tiny strawberry transplants. The straw on those was set as mulch around the nearby black currant bush, which I think might be old enough to produce berries this year. It’s doing really well for something that started out as a little stick in a jug of water my mother snagged from a bush at the apartment building she used to live at and gave to me. These strawberries also had a leaf mulch under the straw, and that was used to mulch under the white lilacs on the other side of the path, to try and keep down the grass and weeds in there.

Once again, it seems like a mix of strawberries that survived and didn’t survive. For both areas, it will be a while before we know for sure what survived or not.

All in all, I am very happy with the progress and how the pre-sown beds look so far.

After this, there are other beds to prepare, but I think what I will need to do is get those boxes of chicken coop parts and assemble it, first. We’ll be getting chicks near the end of May and will set up a brooder in the house for their first 4-6 weeks, but I still want the coop assembled as soon as possible, and the ground is now dry enough.

That done, I have several beds that need to be cleaned up, plus two that need some building up of walls. The bed against the chain link fence will be a priority. It will be a bit narrower and a bit deeper when I am done, and I want to make sure it can be covered and protected from both the elm tree seeds that will drop in their billions, and the cats. The kittens got under the row netting I used last time and completely flattened anything that I’d pre-sown in that bed, except some Jebousek lettuce and a few sad onions that had survived the previous winter. I’ve already got some materials for the deadwood walls I plan to make, but I know I will need a lot more to finish the job. It’s always surprising just how much material is needed to make a wall! I’m not even going to try doing wattle weave; the materials we have are just too bent up and inflexible for that. We do have an order of basket will that will probably be shipped out in may. It will be a few years, but we will eventually be able have willow switched that will work much better than the poplar and maple suckers we’ve been using. Even the willow we do have is a different variety and, while it works better, the willow switches are not as straight as the basket willow will be.

But first, the chicken coop!

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Finally getting things done

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First thing I just have to say is…

Oh, wow, that new well pump is so QUIET!!!!

For 8 years, I’ve been hearing that old pump going off, never knowing what “normal” sounded like. Just that this one was sounding worse and worse as time went on. Now that it has finally been replaced, it actually feels weird to just barely hear it when it goes off.

The other thing I’m appreciating, in a still stressful way, though, is not having to worry about the truck’s oil pressure sensor triggering alarms. The alternative, until the OEM sensor comes in, is no sensor at all, but I’ve had to drive it with the gauge at 0 before. The check engine light is on now, of course. I’ve driven with that on for quite a while this past winter, until it warmed up enough and it shut off on its own. That was the O2 sensor and likely caused by the polar vortexes that his us freezing something in it.

Still, I’m going to be nervous driving the truck no matter what. We’ve had so many crazy things break down, that’s really to be expected.

Today, however, the dump is open from 9am to1pm, and we were seriously overdue for a dump run. The last time I managed a dump, I ended up needing a tow.

My younger daughter, sweetheart that she is, offered to come with me to keep me company. 😄

We loaded the back of the truck after the morning cat feeding was done. We had so many garbage bags, including from the sun room and the garage, to load, there was room for only one bag of recycling. The recycling can wait. The temperatures are warming up, and the garbage bags no longer freeze in the old kitchen, so they needed to be gone!

When we got to the dump and started making our way to the pit, my daughter got out to walk ahead, looking for anything that might puncture a tire. There was a pick up truck parked on the side, and we hadn’t realized someone was in it! It was one of the staff having his lunch, I think. He could tell what she was doing and I could see he was assuring her it wasn’t necessary. We got a chuckle out of that after she guided me in backing up to the pit and she told me what he’d been saying. He had even asked if we needed a hand unloading!

After we were done and driving out, I stopped at the truck to thank him. I mentioned to him about being paranoid, having gotten a flat after doing a dump run once. He told me that he’s been hearing stories like that from many, many people, so he has been making sure to keep an eye out and to clear in front of the pit if he sees anything that could cause damage. I made sure to tell him how great of a job they’re doing; the place hasn’t looked this good for a long time! I wanted him to know how much it is appreciated.

From there, it was a quick stop at the recycling bins, then then we made our way to the town north of us. I’d brought our files to drop off at the tax preparer. Our taxes are about as simple as can be; the only change this year is that I no longer am going to get the Caregiver Tax Credit, but now qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. We gave up trying to do taxes ourselves; the last time I picked up the software, it had changed so much, I could barely navigate it. I even got another company’s software, and it turned out to be just as useless. My husband has T4A slips – the slips for persons on long term disability. One brandy’s software didn’t even recognize the A, nor could I find where we could claim the Disability Tax Credit and the Caregiver Tax Credits. When it came to claiming my husband’s medical expenses – just his prescriptions, usually – it became impossible. There simply wasn’t any way to input his data accurately. I gave up, took it to a pro, and we’ve been doing that ever since.

After dropping the files off, I asked my daughter if we needed to get anything while in town, and she informed me we were out of milk, so we went to the grocery store.

Good grief.

I got a 4L of 3% milk instead of our usual 2L. A 4L of 3% is usually just over $5. In this town, one brand was over $8, and one was just under. That happened to be the brand we usually get, so we got it again.

We went through the store to see if there was anything else we needed. Most of the prices were just insane. The exception was beef prices. I saw a couple of big beef tenderlions that were just over and just under the $100 range. Those same beef tenderlions cost almost $300 at Costco! Still, it wasn’t something we were ready to get today, and ended up just getting snacks for the ride home. My daughter picked up a package of donuts to share with her sister. I don’t like cake type donuts much, but she said she’s been craving a good donut.

Then she grabbed everything and snuck ahead to pay for it for me! 😄

Later on, she came to me, very disappointed. The donuts turned out to be terrible. The same thing happened the last time we picked up some mini donuts about a month ago. They looked so good, but tasted horrible!

After we got home, I remembered to phone my mother. I usually remember too late in the day to actually make the call.

*sigh*

I asked how she was doing, and she started to complain about being in pain, but when I asked what kind of pain, she just started going on about how she’s been there for three months, and the doctor has never seen her. She told me that when she tells the staff that she wants to see the doctor, they just tell her “he’ll be here tomorrow” or “he’s on holidays”. She’s conflating responses. He was on holidays over Easter, but he’s been back for awhile now. She still claims they’re saying he’s on holidays. I tried to explain again that yes, he has (briefly, to be sure) seen her, but that he’s only there 1 day a week, and it’s to go over the staff reports, not necessarily to see individual people. She cut me off and told me she didn’t care

She did ask me if I’d heard from my sister and my brother. I told her, it’s been a few days since I’ve heard from my sister and got a lecture about how we need to stay in communication. I told her, if we have nothing to say, there’s nothing to say! Then I told her I’d heard from my brother yesterday, and how they’re now in Spain, after walking 190km, with another 90km to go. She told me, she didn’t care about kilometers, and how all she knows is that my brother has basically run away from his responsibilities and is hiding overseas. I told her, they are on a pilgrimage. Following the paths of saints. She brushed that off.

She’s asked what was new with us, so I told her about the well pump. I knew she wouldn’t care, but I figured it would stave off any lectures on why I hadn’t visited her. I told her the pump had stopped working on Sunday, so we had no water, which seemed to confuse her. Then I said we called plumbers, and she started demanding I call a guy she remembers my father hiring in the past that lives not far from us. I said no. I’m going to call a real plumber! Plus, he’s tight with our vandal. The guy actually is a plumber by training, but hasn’t worked as a plumber in years. He’s been on disability for years. I had to cut my mother off from demanding I call him to say, it’s already fixed. We got a plumber in and, thanks to my brother, we already had a pump, so it’s done. We have water again.

Oh, that’s your problem.

…

At that point I told her, don’t ask me what’s new with us, if you don’t care to hear about what’s new. I had to repeat it a few times before she got what I was saying, then tried to blame it on how bad she’s feeling.

She never did tell me exactly how she’s feeling bad, other than generic stuff. She started off talking about pain, but finished by saying she thinks it’s her digestion that’s causing problems.

The real problem is, my mother is someone that is 94 years old, has lived a life of great physical hardship, including surviving starvation and a war, but somehow thinks she would be feeling perfectly healthy – and any doctor that can’t just fix her (without pills, though, because she’s already taking so many and she’s still in pain…) is not a good doctor. I have tried to get her to explain her expectations to me, and she never quite answers.

It was a frustrating call.

She had been about to go for a nap, though, so I didn’t keep her on the phone for too long.

Meanwhile…

It’s been a lovely day, but one where I’ve been fighting sleep all day. I’m just drained. Still, I made sure to do the evening cat feeding, just to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We hit 10C/50F today, and it’s been so lovely!

This morning, my daughter had helped me return all the carriers for storage in the sun room, with the doors open so cats can go in and out. After doing the feeding, I got some puppy pads to set inside the carriers in such a way that they would also keep the doors from closing all the way.

This promptly happened.

That’s little Flopsy on the left. The one on the right is an unsocialized cat we haven’t named. Can’t get close to it, but it is quite content to go into a carrier and use it as a nest!

It was so nice out, I took the time to grab the snow shovel and do some clearing. I shoveled in front of the old kitchen garden retaining wall, clearing more than enough space for the assembled chicken coop. Now that there’s no longer over a foot of snow on the area, the layer of ice left on the grass can melt away and the area will have a chance to dry out faster. We won’t get chicks until the end of May, and they won’t be big enough to go into a coop for weeks later, but the earlier we set up the coop, the better. It will give us time to determine if that area will actually work, or if we need to try somewhere else. We don’t have a lot of level areas, anywhere.

I’m really, really enjoying the warmer weather! At this rate, it won’t be long before I can remove the mulch on the sown garden beds, so the soil can thaw out faster. Not in the main garden area, yet. That’s still completely covered in snow and will take longer, but the slightly higher raised beds in the old kitchen garden and in the east yard are already mostly free of snow.

Looking ahead, we are going to have a few days where the highs will dip below freezing again, but after that we’re supposed to start getting highs above 10C/50F, and overnight lows staying above freezing, regularly.

I can hardly believe April is almost half gone already.

Time is just flying by!

The Re-Farmer

Progress, and kindness

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My daughters are awesome.

I had gone to bed early last night. Exhausted as I was, I didn’t get as much sleep as I should have. Partly because I decatted myself to roll over, only to get hit with a Charlie horse.

Yeah, I over did it with the shoveling and snow clearing to get the truck out.

Still, I woke up before sunrise – early enough that I expected to be able to do the outside cat feeding, only to find the girls had already done it.

In this.

Yeah. That’s -31C/-24F with a wind chill of -41C/-42F It stayed like that for hours longer, too.

I got to stay in bed, covered in cats. Even Big Rig came over and crawled under the covers with me. Big Rig never does that with me. She is usually buried under the covers in my husband’s hospital bed! That, or loafed on a heat vent in the hallway. 😄

Still, it did eventually start to warm up. I was just settling down with breakfast before I planned to head out again when I got a message that a couple from the rescue group were on their way from the city with a kibble donate. It would be another hour before they got here, so I had time to finish eating before heading out.

The first thing I had to do was shovel away the blocks of packed ice and snow I’d cleared from the truck tires to get it un-stuck. Once I got anything that looked like it might break little Spewie, I dragged it out, along with the extension cords, so start snow blowing away the rest of the path.

I’d barely made three passes when I heard a little honk behind me. I’d already opened the gate, and a gentleman came over to confirm they were in the right place. I’d cleared enough that they could get through with their car as far as the garage, so I just stuck Spewie on a snow bank and moved the extension cords aside so they could drive in.

Then the started unloading the back of their car…

… and the back on the passenger side…

… then the back on the driver’s side, too!!!

I opened the tailgate on the truck to load things on, out of the snow.

It turns out someone had given the rescue a massive donation, and this was just some of what they got that they could pass on to us! Not just try kibble, either! There were three big bags of kibble, six smaller bags of fancy kibble, eight cases of fancy canned cat food, and a case of cat milk they thought we might be able to use.

What a treasure trove!

Yes, a lot of them are near their “best before” dates, but they are all well sealed, so they will be fine.

After the stuff was unloaded, I invited them to check out our shelters. As we were walking around, the lady noticed the collapsing log building by the fire pit and got all excited. Barn wood!

They want to come back in the spring or summer, so she can buy some. 😄😄 I’m quite happy with that offer, since we really need to clean out and clean up the collapsed buildings. If someone can make use of the antique wood, all the better!

After they left, I let my daughter know about the cat food in the truck, and she took it inside while I finished clearing the driveway.

You can see where the truck got stuck by the piles of shoveled snow and ice on either side. 😄

It wasn’t a large area that was left to do, but it was really rough. I had to be careful not to twist an ankle or fall because of the mix of hard packed snow and much softer snow. I was able to also clear the second side of the path to the trail cam. I started off with the snow blower, but the hard packed foot path was quite narrow. In the end, I got the shovel and cleared the non-packed side to make a safer path to the trail cam. The snow there was so much lighter, I was able to clear right to the grass!

I was also able to clear space to back into when leaving the garage, and widen the path towards the small gate on the chain link fence. That also cleared a decent chunk of the driving lane leading to the large gate into the yard.

Then I stopped for the day. I did not want to push myself too far. This would be the third day in a row of shoveling, second day with snow blowing as well. I have to remind myself not to do too much, or my body is just going to give out.

So I will work on the inner yard, tomorrow. That will be mostly the snow blower, at least. I didn’t even bother putting little Spewie and the extension cords completely away. They’re just set in beside the truck for the night. Tomorrow, I’ll run the extension cords through the back door of the garage to better reach the inner yard.

After that, it’s supposed to warm right up, even to above freezing, over the next couple of weeks. Not that I’m holding much stock on those predictions. Long term forecasts had predicted a mild February, until we started getting hit with Alberta Clippers and Colorado Lows. It certainly wouldn’t be unusual for us to get a couple of blizzards between now and the end of April.

As I was putting everything away, I was entertained by finding adorableness all over the place.

The smaller cats are really liking that collapsed cat cave! It’s right near the bigger heat bulb, so even though they’ve managed to flatten it, they’d still be getting some warmth from the lamp. Blot using Colby as a bed is just adorable. I’m glad Colby’s sister, Sprig, didn’t run away when I stopped to take a picture. That’s actually progress. I’m not sure if that tabby is Flopsy, the one we recently got neutered, or if it’s the female tabby that looks just like him that we weren’t able to snag.

By the time I got in, it was well past noon, and I’d been out there for at least two hours. Thankfully, we did warm up to a relatively balmy -21C/-6F, with almost no windchill. We’re under an extreme cold warning for tonight, though, when we are expected to hit -31C/-24F again. Wind chills are expected to hit anywhere from -40C/F to -45C/-49F

I was already stiffening up and made sure to take some pain killers, but my daughter had to make a lunch for me. I’m going to have to be really pro-active on the pain killers and anti-inflammatories tonight, so that I’m still mobile tomorrow.

In other things, I still haven’t heard back from the garage about the console display on the truck no longer working. I would really like to get that fixed before I go into the city for our stock up shopping, just in case it’s not just a fuse. There are just so many weird things happening with the truck, it has made me paranoid.

Ah, well.

For now, I’m going to make sure I get enough rest so that I’m good to go for finishing up tomorrow. If I haven’t heard from the garage by Monday morning, I think I’ll just go into town after picking up our packages at the post office and talking to them in person.

Little by little, it’s getting done…

The Re-Farmer

It’s working! … plus another $180

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These issues with the truck have totally wrecked our grocery budget. Mostly with cat supplies.

Speaking of cats, here’s some cuteness for you!

I got a call from the medical devices people this morning, about picking up the commode from my mother’s. After giving directions to find us, I mentioned that I needed to go into town, so they suggested I leave the commode outside. I warned them that they might have to remove some cats!

The cats were very, very curious!

So that has finally been returned.

Meanwhile, I headed into town to drop off the truck early. After leaving the keys, I had lunch at the nearby Chinese restaurant, then walked over to the hospital to visit my mother. Talking to the owner of the garage before leaving, he told me they would just replace the oil sensor and do the oil change this time. Fixing the leak on the differential is a 2 hour job, and they didn’t have time for that today. The part, at least, is cheap. It just takes a long time to replace it.

When I came got to my mother’s, she was in the wheelchair with her back to the door. I could immediately see she had something in her ears.

Cotton balls.

Because of all the noise.

*sigh*

She says the noise seems to be coming from all over. At one point, she asked me about “the thing with holes” in the wall next to where the call button cord goes into the wall. She said she asked the nurses, but they didn’t know what it was. Meanwhile, I was saying, “you mean the speaker?”

So she thought the speaker was piping in noise from other parts of the hospital, into her room. I explained to her that when she pushes the call button, they hear it at the nursing station, and they can talk to her through it from there, that’s it. It’s not connected to anywhere else.

Clearly, they don’t actually use it, if the nurses didn’t know it was a speaker!

She was also asking about magnets. Are there magnets in there? I said yes. Oh, so that’s what’s magnifying the noise!

I had to explain that magnets have nothing to do with magnifying things.

Then she asked if I knew when she would be out of there, and talked about how her “service” was so much poorer. I told her (again, but she doesn’t remember) that she is not a patient anymore. She is a long term care resident. She would be getting the same level of care now, as she would be getting in a nursing home. She was actually surprised to hear this. I think it just finally clicked.

She then started telling me about how she was feeling so poorly and had called for help. They hooked her up to “all the wires” (an EKG), but that was it. No one has said anything to her. I asked her if this happened yesterday, but she couldn’t remember. Finally, she just said yes, yesterday. I told her that someone would need to look at the results, but if there is nothing wrong, they won’t have anything to tell her.

By the time I left, I completely forgot to stop at the nursing station to ask.

It was a pretty quiet visit, overall. My mother was having one of her good days, as far as her mood and attitude goes. Of course, she complained that my brother never calls or visits, but she always does that. I told her, he has been very busy taking care of her affairs. At the very least, he’s going to have to stop by to pick up the keys my sister dropped off.

After a while, it was time to head out again. It was getting so warm (we hit 4C/39F today!), I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible, too.

On the way back to the garage, I pass a couple of gas stations. Prices went up 5¢/L since I walked past them earlier!

The truck was still in one of the bays when I came in, but I knew it wouldn’t be much longer, so I just went into the office to wait. The owner was working on our truck himself, though he was frequently interrupted by phone calls and messages! They are a very busy garage. People know a good thing when it’s there!

It was maybe 5 or 10 minutes later when he backed the truck out, then we had a chance to talk.

He had done some research, trying to figure out why our sensor, which was replaced maybe a year ago, was having issues again. Based on what he found, he told me he removed a screen from inside the sensor. It’s there to prevent blockages. However, in our make and model, it actually causes blockages. With our winter conditions, moisture eventually gets into the system. The sensor is located off to the side, instead of next to the air filter, so it ends up with ice on the screen, causing a blockage, and faulty readings.

In the end, it cost me $230.86 in total, for the sensor, the oil change and a new oil filter. The sensor cost only a dollar less than the oil change!

He did not charge me for labour.

Meanwhile, I am now booked for next week, this time with an early morning drop off. He’s got a 2 hour slot to get that differential leak fixed. That’s going to cost another $300 or so, after taxes. Only $50 of that is for the part itself.

*sigh*

I had been thinking of doing the Walmart run after getting the truck back, but I just didn’t have the energy left for it. Instead, I went across the street to the grocery store again. I had a couple of requests from my husband, and asked the family if where was anything else we needed. Of course, when I did saw some good sales, I took advantage of it.

I didn’t take a picture of the cart again, but here is the receipt for $179.20

Once again, the most painful price was the dry kibble. This time, I got a bag for the outside cats, since I haven’t been able to get to a feed store to get any 40 pound bags. We aren’t out, but getting low, and I didn’t want to take a chance of running out completely, in case I don’t make it to the feed store soon enough.

The canned cat food was on sale, so I got enough to last us for a few more days of cat soup.

My husband requested nacho fixings, without the cheese. 😄 The chips were on sale, so I got four bags for him – but forgot to get olives. Oops. I did grab some more of the sour candies for him, though. I also got a giant bag of potato chips for the girls.

There was a good sale on BBQ sauces, so I got a couple of bottles. Flats of 30 eggs were also on sale, so I got one of those instead of the 18’s I got last time, which were no longer on sale. The girls requested some oat milk.

They had bagged avocados on sale, so I got two of them. We really enjoy avocados, but they have gotten so insanely expensive. There are 5 to a bag, which worked out to 60¢ each. These days, they are usually more than $2.50 each.

They also had hoagies on sale, so I got a couple of packages, along with another locally produced sausage ring. As a treat, I also picked up some smoked Gouda.

Last of all, I could a couple of loaves of rye bread that was also on sale, plus a package of “imperfect” chocolate pieces as a treat for myself.

All of that, except for the bag of dry kibble and the flat of eggs, easily fit into only two hard sided bags. Twenty nine items in total.

I could have had $30 taken off with my loyalty points, but I’m saving that for another time.

As I was loading things into the back of the truck, it started to rain! I’m glad I didn’t try for a Walmart trip. The roads would have been icing over by the time I was driving home.

After we unloaded the truck, I emptied the bag of kibble into the bin for the outside cats, then fed them before trying to move the truck out of the yard. They went absolutely nuts over the kibble! I think they were getting pretty tired of the feed store kibble.

We almost got an extra indoor cat again. While bringing things to the door for my daughter to grab, I stopped to tell her something and left the door open for a split second too long. Sir Robin made a run for it! We got him out quickly, but that cat wants to be an indoor cat, so badly!

Once all unloaded and the cats fed and watered, I could safely move the truck out of the yard. The cats were far more interested in the new food than going under the truck!

At this point, I will need to decide what sort of trip to the city I’ll be making at all. We still need to do a proper stock up trip of bulk items. So at least a Costco trip.

I don’t know if I’ll be doing that tomorrow, or on the weekend. It depend on whether my husband is physically up to getting to the lab tomorrow morning, for his blood work. Tomorrow is Friday. If I go on Saturday, it will be after we do a much needed dump run. We can’t even get rid of my mother’s mattress and box spring yet; there’s no room for those, plus our regular garbage and recycling, in the back of the truck. Plus, the mattress and box spring are longer than the truck box, so they’ll need to be strapped down with the tail gate open. That will need to be done on another day.

The main thing is, I no longer have to worry about the truck starting to scream at me because of a faulty oil sensor!

Ah, well. Little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

Staying cozy

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The temperatures are warming up, and it feels so good!

It’s been a cozy day today, and I got to stay home for it.

Our high of the day was -5C/23F, but it’s almost 8:30pm as I start this, and the temperatures are supposed to keep warming up all night. It’s already -4C/25F, and we’re supposed to reach a high of 1C/34F tomorrow.

Then we’re supposed to drop to -18C/0F as our high, the day after! Which isn’t too bad, but that’s quite the drop!

One of the things staying home allowed me to do was go through and unpack a few more boxes of my mother’s stuff. Most of it will be stored in the root cellar for now. We’ll need to figure out what to do with it, though! We already store our Christmas trees and decorations in there, but they don’t take up much of the shelf space that I would be using to store garden produce. We’ll have the summer to figure that out and make space again, at least, but some items, I just don’t know what to do with. They’re not things I want to shove into a box to be disappeared into the many other boxes of stuff from my parents we’ve got all over the place, for a variety of reasons, but we just don’t have the space for them. We could literally furnish and supply another house or two at this point!

Still, there are more boxes that need to be dealt with, and some things will need to be organized and re-packed to go into storage elsewhere. It has to be done before things start to melt, and the basements start getting wet.

My mother keeps suggesting we have a garage sale, but who would bother to drive this far out for a garage sale? We had a hard enough time when we tried having garage sales while living in the city. I’ve considered selling things online (which I’ve talked to her about), but that would be totally on our household; my siblings have no interest in that sort of things at all. There actually is quite a bit of vintage and collectable stuff in there. Lots more, however, we’d probably have a hard time giving them away for free.

Ah, but don’t throw anything out, my mother insists! Especially not her papers!

🫤🫤

The papers are the worst of it. There is SO much, and I don’t think she even knows what all is in there!

When I was packing up the embroidery and crocheted items, I found an object wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, hidden in the drawer. That turned out to be a cattle ear tagger. Today, I unpacked what looked like the foot pedal for a sewing machine.

My mother didn’t have a sewing machine.

I sent a picture to my brother, in case he recognized what it was part of. Maybe they saw something while they were packing other boxes.

If I remember, I can ask her tomorrow. After I drop the truck off at the garage, I’ll walk over to the hospital to visit my mother. My sister was able to visit her today.

My mother is already starting to ask me to bring her things from her stuff – this from the person who complains when we bring her things she actually needs, because she doesn’t want too many things in her hospital room! The most recent one was to bring her fan, so she can “have air”. That would need to be cleared with the hospital, but I reminded her, we don’t know how long she will be there. The hospital needs that bed, so they would be motivated to get her into a personal care home as quickly as possible.

Which would be so much better for her. A personal care home would have activities available and she really misses that, and really needs something to occupy her mind, and can also not be stuck in one room all the time.

Until she’s settled somewhere permanent, we need to keep some of her stuff set aside and available until we know what she can have with her, besides things like clothing and pictures.

All in good time, I guess.

Meanwhile, I’m really hoping things go well with the truck. Depending on how quickly they get it done, I might make that Walmart trip we never made it to after picking it up. Or the next day, though I also need to get my husband to the lab for some blood work. He needs to fast for it, so we have to get him in pretty much as soon as the lab opens.

Then there’s all the other trips I haven’t been able to make because of either the truck acting up, or because we were dealing with getting my mother’s apartment empty.

*sigh*

I’m really hoping we can manage getting a replacement vehicle. I hate to give up the truck. It really is the ideal vehicle for us, but it’s had so many problems, mostly sensor related!

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Brutal… but it’s done!

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It was white knuckle time at the end, but we did it.

My mother’s apartment is now completely empty.

At our end, things started after my brother got here and started working on their truck. Which he had to dig his way to. After clearing the barn door enough to open it to access their shovels, etc. He was able to plug in the block heater and left it to warm up before getting their snow blower out.

When I saw he was here, I went out and checked on the truck. It started fine and, at first, that oil pressure gauge was actually in the normal range, which was encouraging. After backing it out a bit, I found a single drop of fresh oil under the truck and that was it. Oil levels were fine. Yay!

Then I caught up with my brother and we worked things out. He would continue with the snow blowing and getting their truck ready, and I would go to my mother’s apartment, where my SIL was already at work packing.

There were a few little delays as he remembered to load up a cart to help carry things to the truck, and so on. In that time, I noticed…

The needle on the oil pressure gauge was dropping again.

*sigh*

It dropped to the same level it was at when I drove the truck home yesterday, then didn’t move. Not that I could focus on it much during the drive in. While today’s temperature was a lot warmer, the wind was insane. It wasn’t even snowing yet, but there was so much blowing snow on the highway that I was hitting white outs, even without snow kicked up by oncoming traffic. Once I was parked, I took a picture of the oil pressure gauge and texted it to our mechanic, as described how things had gone. Then I headed inside.

My SIL had been very busy. We were all shocked by how much was left. My sister didn’t take everything she was supposed to. I think she misunderstood and thought she was to take the things she wanted to keep, plus the stuff my mother specifically wanted her to take, not help empty the place.

There were boxes packed and ready, though, so I immediately started loading up the truck. It wasn’t long before I had as much as I could fit, so I headed back home, messaging my daughters before I left, so they would be prepared to assembly line things into the basement.

I also got a response from the garage. He found what was going on very strange. He said it could be two things: a problem with the engine, or the sensor – and the engine checked out fine when he was working on it yesterday. Which means, it is the sensor. Yet another common issue with our make and model of truck.

Definitely not going with GM again in the future.

I asked him if the sensor was still on warranty – it was replaced maybe a year ago – but whether it is or not, I asked how soon I could bring it in to be fixed. He will check on Monday and get back to me.

So, basically the truck is fine. Which is good, because I did a lot of driving today!

When I got home, I found my brother had gotten the snow blowing done, including clearing a path to the storage house that they could back their truck up to, when it was time to do the furniture.

The boxes, however, were going into the house. I unloaded the truck to the door, one daughter grabbed whatever I had, then passed it to her sister at the basement stairs. This was rather awkward because of how the doors are, and the need to make sure they got closed before any cats made a run for it.

Sir Robin did manage to get into the house once!

My poor brother, meanwhile, was having plenty of trouble. Aside from the huge job of snow blowing vehicle-with paths to their trailer and the warehouse they are beside, just in case we needed to put stuff in there – the truck was having issues. In spite of having a solar powered trickle charger all this time, the battery was dead. He had to boost it (thankfully, he has a booster pack) and had gotten it started by the time I unloaded, then went to talk to him before heading back. He was trying to drive it out, but there wasn’t enough turning radius cleared in the snow for a truck the length of his. He ended up having to dig it out manually.

After connecting with him, I headed back to my SIL. This time, loading the truck was more awkward. I needed to get the commode in, as the medical device department of home care will be picking it up from our place some time next week. It was too tall to fit under the box cover, but I managed to get it into the back of the cab, by setting it on one end. There were more boxes to put into the box, but most of what I had to get in was odd shaped stuff, including a large framed picture that my sister had left behind. I was able to get some smaller pieces of furniture in, at least.

The truck was packed about as much as I could when my brother arrived. Neither of them had eaten since breakfast, and it was well past lunch time, so we took a break for food. My brother, out of habit, shut his engine off when he meant to leave it running, and it wouldn’t start again! Thankfully, he brought his booster pack along, just in case, so he was able to get it going again. He did leave it running the entire time we were at the restaurant, and we even sat at a table where he could keep an eye on it, through the window!

We had an excellent lunch.

Since my truck was already loaded, once we were done, I headed home to unload while they went back to the apartment to start loading some furniture. This time, I was going to stay at home until they got there. The winds were still insane, though at least this time, it was at my back, so the drive was at least a bit smoother! It was still pretty hard to see the road at times – yet I still had vehicles passing me!

It wasn’t too much longer before they arrived with the first load of furniture. By this time, it was getting quite dark, and they were unloading into the storage house, which has no power. I brought out a camping lantern we now have – thanks, M! It sure came in handy! – and my brother found a place to hang it in one room, while a second large flashlight we have was used to light up the room we had to go through at the door.

My brother pretty much picked up and carried all the different pieces of furniture in, himself! He’s amazing!

Once that was done, we headed back to the apartment one last time. I was following them, but was soon left behind. The weather had gotten worse, and it was white knuckle driving quite a few times! It was bad enough that, when I got there, I brought up the idea of renting a motel room and spending the night, once everything was packed. They were going to do that drive, though. If I’d been on my own, I would have stayed in town overnight, but I was willing to do the drive, at the same time as them.

With the cap on their truck, they could fit everything left except for the mattress and box spring, both of which will be taken to the dump. That went into my truck. Unfortunately, I have a shorter box on my truck. A whole 2 inches shorter than the mattress and box spring! I do keep rachet straps in the truck now, though, so I was able to strap them down and leave the tailgate open.

After that was loaded, we went back in for one last check in everything, while my SIL took pictures and video of the empty apartment. Then, we locked it up one last time and headed out!

The road conditions were even worse. The only saving grace was that we had the wind at our backs, so the snow kicked up by oncoming traffic wasn’t quite as bad. They followed me this time, and managed to stay in view the whole way, even when we had people passing both of us at the same time! I just don’t get it. The road was barely visible, and a few times I found I had wandered into the other lane, because the road had disappeared under the swirling snow, and people were passing in this? Good grief.

Once back here, I parked the truck in the garage, since it wasn’t going to be unload this time. We got my brother’s truck unloaded – this time, he carried an entire loveseat, up the stairs and into the storage house! I was able to help with that one a tiny bit, at least.

That storage house is so jammed with stuff. We haven’t gone in there all year, and have made no effort to trying and clear it out. So much in there just needs to go to the dump! Now, we have almost all my mother’s furniture squeezed into there.

*sigh*

The boxes the girls and I got into the basement are going to have to be gone though soon. We’ll unpack what will stay in the house, but the rest will need to be repacked and taken into the storage house, somewhere, before spring, when the basements start getting wet.

After the furniture was unloaded, my brother and SIL had to transfer a few things out of it to their car or their trailer, before the truck could finally be parked back in its spot by the barn and they could finally head home. I’m still waiting in anticipation for a message telling me they arrived home safe and sound! I’m really hoping the winds have started to die down. It had started to snow lightly before it got dark, and will continue to snow, off and on, throughout the night.

Meanwhile, I’m just glad we finally got it done. It was brutal – especially with the weather! – but it’s done.

With our not being able to get our city stock up shopping, though, I’m going to have to go into town tomorrow (Sunday) and do a smaller shop. Which means we’ll have to take that mattress and box spring out of the truck, so I can close the tailgate. The dump won’t be open again until Tuesday, so that’s the earliest we can get rid of them. Unless the garage is able to get us in to get that sensor fixed/replaced. I’ll find that out on Monday.

I am so tired of winter.

According to the long range forecast, we’ve got another week of relatively milder temperatures, but then we’re supposedt to start to get highs above freezing more often than not, for the rest of February!

I can’t believe it’s already the last day of January. Where has the month gone???

I am so tired.

The Re-Farmer

Got it done. Plus an update

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It took about 1 1/2 hours, but it’s done.

The plow went by, increasing the snow ridge at the end of the driveway. It really wasn’t that bad and we could have driven through. The problem is, between the plow ridges and the driving, the end of the driveway was getting narrower and narrower. I needed to get that opened up, before the next polar vortex hits.

I love that ice scraper. It does a bang up job of cutting through hard packed plow ridge snow!

Technically, today was warmer, and there was less wind, but even a slight breeze brought was was -20C/-4F to a “real feel” of -31C/-24F. I was well bundled but, by the end of it, my toes and finger tips were starting to feel it!

While I was out there, my mother called from the hospital. I didn’t see my daughter’s message until I was putting things away, almost an hour later. My mother apparently sounded frustrated.

So when I called back, I made sure to talk to the nurse, first. I found out that she has been refusing her afternoon pain meds. Because she’s been in so much pain with her back, and the Voltaren wasn’t enough anymore, they now have she scheduled to take painkillers 3 times a day, instead of “as needed”. She’s apparently been having better days and saying no to the pills.

When talking to her about it later, she told me, she’s taking so many pills! Which makes it sound like it isn’t that she’s in less pain, but that she just doesn’t want to take another pill.

*sigh*

I asked the nurse about my mother getting Xrays, but she could find nothing on the file about it. She made notes to talk to the doctor about it. I also brought up that we need to have a meeting with the doctor, so she made notes for someone that can check his schedule, and to call my brother to book a time. My schedule is flexible, so I can work around his.

Then I got transferred to my mother’s room.

*sigh*

She was shouting right from her “hello”. It actually hurt my ears. When I asked her why she was shouting, it was “so you can hear me.”

Yeah, Mom. I can hear you. So can everyone outside your door and down the hall!

No, I didn’t say that out loud.

She then starting complaining. No one is calling. No one is visiting. No one cares (she includes the hospital staff on that). Why doesn’t my brother call or visit?

So I told her about his going to her place to replace the window from the AC set up, then about the woman who fell. She actually knows the woman, as she often does the Gospel readings in church. When I told her about the fall and my brother taking her to the hospital, she only wanted to know, which hospital. I told her, and she started saying, she has children, why did my brother drive her. Her (adult) children weren’t there (I think they live in the city!). Even when I told her, my brother probably saved her life, because if he hadn’t seen her, there was a good chance she would have frozen to death before anyone got to her.

She didn’t care.

She also didn’t have any appreciation for my brother going out to her apartment in the severe cold, getting the window done, helping a neighbour, and still driving her to the farm to drop off the AC, in the dark.

Instead, she kept complaining about how no one calls or visits her. I finally told her that, right then, she was making me regret calling her back, and called her out on how nasty she was being.

She – sarcastically – thanked me for being open with her.

*sigh*

After that, the call was better. She did complain that money was probably taken from her bank account for her apartment. I told her that she IS still renting it. All her things are still there. Of course she has to pay for it. That got us to talking about her things and what she wants done with them.

Don’t throw anything away, she keeps saying.

We’ve got an entire building filled with personal belongings we packed from this house – a building we could really use as the workshop it used to be – that she insists we don’t throw away. Now, we’ll have more, and we’ve already run out of storage space.

Then she demanded I tell her what I planned to do with a particular mirror she’s had stuck in her storage closet for the past 10 years. Something she gets obsessed about, every now and then. I finally had to tell her, don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it.

Then she started going on about how, really, my sister should be taking care of her more, she and her husband are both on pension, she doesn’t need to be working, she should be taking care of Mom.

I’m sure my sister has been nagged about that a few times, already!

I was eventually able to get a word in – right after she told me, she wants to get out of there! – and told her, I think her problem is, she’s bored. She’s there by herself, with nothing to do, and she’s bored. We talked about it a bit, and she agreed. She is bored and lonely! Which, I told her, is completely understandable!

Well, this post got interrupted by a call from my brother.

We have a meeting booked with the doctor. They got us in as quickly as they could, and it’s an evening meeting, so that works for my brother. It was noted that, since we are dealing with cognitive issues with my mother, she won’t be there, and won’t even be told about it. Our concern was that, if she knew in advance, she’d end up telling our vandal about it, and he could cause problems.

It sucks having to even consider these things.

As for me, I am done for the day. I’m glad I got the end of the driveway cleared, but I’m really going to be paying for it, tonight, even with my meds!

I have to admit, though, I did quite enjoy the shoveling!

The Re-Farmer

More than three hours, plus time to say good bye

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First, the good news… sad news… but awesome news…

Tonight will be our last night with this beauty.

I’ve been talking with the rescue about her, because she is so incredible matted. They just got a new foster, so Kohl will be their first rescue! This should work out, as Kohl is already socialized and spayed, so she should be an easy one. They’ve already posted pictures of her on social media, requesting a volunteer groomer, or someone who could sponsor a groomer. She is so badly matted, she will likely need need a total shave. I picked her up and snuggled her this morning, and it was hard to find a place on her body that did NOT have any mats!

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading into the city to do our Costco stock up shopping. Instead of going to the new one, like we did last time, we’ll be going to our usual location. There’s a mall nearby where we’ll meet up with someone from the rescue and hand over Kohl. (I’m pretty sure my younger daughter will be coming with me, though I haven’t confirmed that yet.) After Kohl it picked up, we’ll hit the mall for breakfast/lunch before hitting the Costco.

There has already been interest shown in adopting Kohl, though one of the people in the rescue is very tempted to adopt her, herself. However, like us, she already has too many indoor cats!

With the stock up shopping about to happen, my goal for today was the clear more of the inner yard so there would be more room for the truck to turn around and back up to the house.

This is how it looked when my daughter first cleared a turn around space towards the outhouse, as well as a path to the litter compost pile behind it.

While she used little Spewie, I would break up the edges of with the snow shovel so that it would be easier for Spewie to get through, as the snow was too deep and areas were getting packed pretty hard by high winds. It took quite a while for my daughter to clear the space, and it left her having to use a cane for the next two or three days!

When I tried to actually use the turn around space, it turned out that “point” in the middle was still a problem. One corner of the truck hit it as I turned. That normally wouldn’t have been a problem except 1) the snow was even more hard packed by then and 2) the plastic shield under the bumper was already loose on that corner and held in place with clear duct tape. That got torn loose, and now it’s hanging again. Even if I had more of the duct tape, I couldn’t use it because it’s too cold for adhesive to stick.

So my main focus was to widen the whole area but to especially clear out that “point”.

In the first picture, you can see I was also able to clear a path to the outhouse (our emergency second bathroom). I used a shovel to clear space at the door so it had room to swing open, because there’s a high density foam mat under the snow that somehow has raised edges. The last time I tried to clear in front of the door with Spewie, it caught on the mat and actually tore it up a bit!

The path to the litter compost pile was already done by my daughter before, so I just used a shovel to clear it again a bit more, then tidied it up a bit with Spewie, later.

In the next picture, you can see where I’d widened the area by the tree a bit, and turned that “point” into a diagonal. The first 50 feet or so weren’t to bad, but past that, the snow was so hard packed, I couldn’t use the shovel to break it up anymore. I had to use the ice scraper to basically chop the snow up into pieces small enough for Spewie to be able to go over them without breaking.

I honestly felt tempted to stop and get a machete to try cutting snow blocks and build an igloo! 😄 Or even just snow walls strategically placed to block the wind. That area’s snow would have been ideal for that.

In the last picture, you can see I cleared space on the other side of the sidewalk, too. There had been a small triangle of snow between paths that I got rid of completely. That gives us more room to back up, plus move around the back of the truck with the tail gate open.

Once that was done, I decided to see how much more I could do. After adding a third extension cord from the garage, I had enough length to not only clean up and widen some cat paths, but I was able to clear a path to the fire pit and BBQ, clear enough space around the fire pit for chairs, paths to the wood pile and branch pile, and finally a path around the old kitchen garden so we can access the septic tank, if needed.

I’m so glad I set up the emergency septic bypass before the snow fell. There’s so much snow on top of it right now, you can barely see where the pipes and hose are at all! I don’t expect we’ll need to use it. If the ejector was going to freeze again like last winter, it would have happened by now. Still, it’s good that it’s set up now, just in case. If we did end up needing to use it, the only thing we’d need to do is clear the snow away from the end of the hose in the maple grove, so the grey water wouldn’t end up freezing into a block at the end.

Then, I did some clearing in the outer yard. I widened some turning space to get into the garage – that required more breaking up of snow with the ice scraper, too. Last of all, I cleared some paths to a couple of my brother’s trucks. He has solar panel trickle chargers set up in their windows. He was able to use his gas powered snow blower to clear a path to one truck, but it was too big to clear paths to the other two. I’d checked on them to clear snow away from the windows in front of the solar panels, and found the snow was quite deep. For me, that’s something that could easily result in my having another fall. I could have shoveled the paths, I suppose, but Spewie is small enough to get in there.

By the time I was done and put everything away, I’d been out there for more than three hours.

I really enjoy work like this, so it didn’t feel like it was very long at all, but once I was done and putting things away, my body was starting to tell me it wasn’t too happy!

On the plus side, my new coat was more than enough to keep me warm out there. I had tried to use the collar to keep my lower face warm, but all that really did was cause my glasses to frost up. I ended up going inside and my husband took them and set them aside from me, so most of this was done without my glasses. I could see a lot better without them than with!

Once I was inside and settling in with some food, things really started to stiffen up. I sat at my bedside to take my meds before eating, and had to get my daughter to help me stand up again, even though I now keep a cane with feet near my nightstand as an aid to standing up. It wasn’t enough today!

It does mean that I’ll probably have issues tomorrow, which is why I’m pretty sure one of my daughters will be coming with me, as my mobility assistant.

I figure today is a good day to go to bed early – after taking more painkillers!

I gotta say, though, it feels so good to get all that done, I really don’t mind the pain!

The Re-Farmer

Got it done

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With needing to go to my mother’s for her bed time med/personal care assists for three nights in a row, I’ve asked the girls to take over doing the morning routine, so I could sleep in.

Too bad the inside cats didn’t get the memo. I had a really rough night last night, mostly due to cast deciding it was play time.

I had some concerns about my mother after seeing her, and have passed those on to the home care coordinator. There was some definite increased confusion. It might have been because she was really tired. She was actually surprised to see me because she said the guy that did her supper assist (no personal care on that visit, so she’s okay with a guy doing it) was supposed to come back for her bed time assist. She told me some conflicting things, so I had to include those in my email with the home care coordinator, because they just didn’t make sense. I need to confirm what’s actually happening.

As for today, we warmed up to a whole -6C/21F this afternoon, so I headed out to do a last few things before the temperatures start dropping.

One of those was to use the straw I’d collected in the wheelbarrow last night, before things started to get too dark.

The water bowl shelter now has straw on the floor in the back, on top of the rigid insulation that was already there. The giant crocheted blanket that was under there is now covering the roof of the kibble house as an extra layer of insulation.

After setting up the back of the water bowl house with straw, I had plenty left over, so I added some to the floor of the kibble house, too, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above. There is a sheet of insulation under the floor boards, plus another sheet on the ground below, so any cats small enough to go under there are pretty well sheltered, too.

That done, it was time to put the straw bale away for the winter, so to speak. I dragged over the insulated tarp to cover it with. Unfortunately, that tarp got some holes worn into it in places, and water got inside the layers. I tried to set it up so it could dry, but then we started getting more rain. Which mean a section of it was frozen flat an inflexible.

Still, it’ll do the job.

I raked up loose straw around the bale first, then covered it with the tarp and tied it in place. Hopefully, the wind won’t catch on it too much. The wrapped bale is in the last photo of the slide show above

We are now officially done with winterizing things now.

Once the bale was covered, I stayed out to do a bunch of little things around the yard before it was time to do the evening food and water for the outside cats.

In the first picture above, you can see the cats are quite happy with the straw in their kibble shelter! In the next picture, you can see the usual crowd in the top of the isolation shelter. The last picture, however, made me happy to see. That’s Pinky, enjoying the straw bed in the bottom of the shelter. She used to enjoy the cat bed that had been under there until they started using it as a litter box. Now there’s no bed down there, but two litter boxes, and now straw.

It’s getting cold enough now that we will probably have to stop softening their kibble. It’s not an issue in the sun room or isolation shelter, but in all the other shelter kibble bowls, it’s getting to the point that it will freeze before they can finish eating it.

I am not looking forward to winter. I’m getting too old for the cold!

The Re-Farmer